Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Redistricting, mandated by the constitution every 10 years after the census, was delayed because the Census reports were late.
On March 15, 2022, the Court of Appeals postponed the upcoming primary election from June 28, 2022 to July 19, 2022. In addition, the candidate filing deadline is changed to April 15, 2022 AT 9 p.m.
While candidates still have until April 15 to file to run, the local slate is already crowded.
Clearly nearly everyone in Montgomery County will need to send in to vote by mail. Who knows for certain that they will be in town on July 19? Anyone who does might also be averse to activities indoors during the pandemic.
Possibly you think that primary elections aren’t so important. You can vote in November, right?
Consider that 100 percent of the elected officials in Montgomery County, every one, is from the same political party. That means that the election is decided by primary voters. On July 19.
It’s time to pay attention. July 19 is about when there will be ripe tomatoes in your garden or at your farmers market. It’s soon.
There have been debates between candidates already, and many groups and individuals demonstrate that they have already been tuning in.
Some Examples:
Marc Elrich is running for reelection as county executive for Montgomery County, facing at least four other candidates in the Democratic primary. Included are David Blair, two current members of County Council, Tom Hucker, District 5, and Hans Riemer, at large; and Peter James.
Three incumbents will be on the ballot for the four County Council at large seats, Gabe Albornoz, Evan Glass and Will Jawando. The incumbents are all Democrats.
Also running as Democrats for County Council at large are Brandy H. M. Brooks, Scott Evan Goldberg and Laurie-Anne Sayles.
Three Republicans are listed and will likely advance to the General Election in November (top four advance): Christopher P. Fiotes R, Lenard Lieber R and Dwight Patel R
Potomac, in Council District 1, is represented now by Andrew Friedson, who is running for reelection. Amy Ginsburg (D) plans to run against him in the primary. Cheryl Riley (R) is also throwing her hat in the ring.
The entire schematic only gets more complicated and more important from here. (And if you care about your neighborhood, not much is more important than County Council.)
The lines between Congressional District 6 and 8 have shifted, affecting some Potomac residents in terms of who represents them in Congress.
Board of Education member from District 1, Pat O’Neill, died unexpectedly in December.
In addition, here is what the Montgomery County Board of Elections website says about the Board of Education Candidates: “These candidates are listed in the district where they live now. After election officials make changes to County, State, and Congressional districts based on final redistricting plans, some candidates may be assigned to a different district. Please come back in late May or early June to see which candidates are running for this district.”
While Board of Education candidates are non-partisan, if there are more than two candidates for a district or at-large, they will appear on the ballot on Primary Election day (quick review, July 19) as well.
To make it clearer, Board of Education candidates run based on the district they live in, but it doesn’t matter what district the voters live in; all voters can vote for all Board of Education districts. And Board of Education is the one thing that could matter more to you than County Council, depending on the issue.
This is without mentioning the races for Governor, Lt. Governor, U.S. Senator, State Senator, House of Delegates, etc.
I’m going to stop here, because we won’t know the final list of candidates for more than another week. But tune in here, and your other sources, in time to make some informed choices. See the candidates list here:
https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2022/primary_candidates/gen_cand_lists_2022_1_by_county_16.html and statewide lists at https://www.elections.maryland.gov/elections/2022/primary_candidates/index.html
— Mary Kimm
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